2. 3 Student team achievement division
Student team achievement division, developed by Slavin, is a method that is to divide students into groups of four who are totally heterogeneous in terms of race, sex, intelligence [10]. The teacher gives a lesson, and students work together within a group to make sure that each one has mastered the lesson. Then they are not allowed to help each other and their individual score will be computed compared with their previous performance. Finally the totally scores of each group will be regarded as the final achievement which deserves rewards [10].
Student team achievement division aims to stimulate students to help and encourage one another mutually to better know the skills as required [10]. Should students hope to behave as well as possible they have to be devoted themselves to their learning.
2. 4 Jigsaw
Jigsaw was first developed by Elliot Aronson in 1978 [10].All the students are divided into groups of four or six to start learning. The whole students are assigned to read some materials such as narration, which can be segmented into several parts, the early stage of historical events, the main achievements, and the influence and so on [10].The students who study the same material accumulate together to discuss the same concrete they shared until they have mastered it completely. Then these students go back to their own groups to teach their members what they have learned. For one thing, they are eager to know what others have mastered; for another, it is the only path for them to steer a heartfelt communication, which will in turn arouse interests in learning from each other for their strong sense of motivation [10].
2. 5 Teams games tournament
Teams games tournament was also proposed by Slavin, which was designed to combine the motivational incentive of group rewards with an individualized instructional program appropriate for the level of skills possessed by each student [9].Small learning groups are composed of students with variant abilities. The unique aspect of this method is that each student works on an individualized unit. Team members use answer sheets to check each other’s worksheets and practice tests, and are responsible for making sure that their teammates are prepared to take the final test for each unit [11]. Discussion and peer tutoring occur because students are required to ask their team members for help before they ask for help from the teacher. The teacher, besides acting as a resource person for the cooperative learning groups, takes students out of their teams for five to six minutes daily to give instruction to groups of students who are at the same level in the curriculum. This method is practical and popular, for it adds excitement to the game [11].
3 The application of cooperative learning in college English teaching
Cooperative learning can be applied into reading, speaking, listening, and writing, the four basic skills as required in English learning.
3. 1 In reading
The teacher carefully summarizes “preparation part” (sometimes including further development part) into several discussions and assigns them into groups. Meanwhile, group members are required to find resources that are relevant to the background information about the coming passage. Sometimes, tasks including explanations of new words and grammatical structures, comprehension questions derived from the passage are provided for the students too. To fulfill the task, cooperative members, guided by the group leader, divide labor among them and make full use of materials available to them such as dictionary, reference book as well as newspaper [11].
Generally, several minutes are assigned to collaborative teams at the beginning of the class to go over the assigned task in case of the rare situation that they do not have enough meetings to discuss before class. They should take advantage of every kind of social skills to question, require comprehending the task by all group members. As for exercise, teammates should work together to discuss and arrive at a consensus answer. Then the groups present their findings in front of the whole class [11].
The successive step can be optional or other activities designed to guarantee students’ comprehension of the passage.
A sample lesson plan with a cooperative learning
Teaching material: Intensive reading (A New English Course 4) [12]
Unit 1 This Year It’s Going to Be Different
Class: Students of food technological science, juniors, HNAU
Group formation $ size: The class is divided beforehand into 7 groups according to their language proficiency. Each group has members of 4-5.
Group leader: Leaders are chosen by the teacher for the first time, and then every group should pass leadership.
Cooperative learning techniques: Group investigation
Positive interdependence: In order to finish the group task successfully, every learner should assume responsibility and furthermore help his team member who has difficulty in presenting findings or answering the comprehension questions until everyone in the group understands.转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
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